Lego Mindstorms

It's likely many die-hard Lego Mindstorms fans got their first exposure to the series of interactive building and construction sets in a school classroom. Lego first marketed its Mindstorms line of products as educational tools designed to make learning fun.

Knowing that when learning is fun, it's usually more effective, too, the Lego Mindstorms series of construction sets, activity packs, and programming tools carries the "learning is fun" concept across many educational subjects.

The sciences are represented in several ways when using Lego Mindstorms learning tools. Because the finished creation is so often designed to be ambulatory or moveable in one way or another, the physical sciences are represented as kinetics, radio frequency, momentum, inertia, and many others, depending entirely upon the design of the individual project.

Technology is also very effectively represented when using Lego Mindstorms products in the classroom. The end result is usually robotic in nature, be it a remote-controlled vehicle, walking and talking robot, or even an interactive game or toy of some sort. Programming, hard wiring, design, and construction all come into play, and learning. And it's all based on the latest computer technologies.

Knowing the sciences and technologies that can be harnessed to build a Lego Mindstorms creation brings the need to organize them in a way that all necessary disciplines come together smoothly and functionally. This aspect of the learning experience relies heavily on the understanding of engineering.

And it's almost impossible to think of science, technology, and engineering without adding math to the equation when designing, building, and learning from the Lego Mindstorms product line. Many students consider math too esoteric, too much theory, and too little relevance but working with the Lego Mindstorms products put theory to practice in a way that is fun and effective.

But there's no need to keep the Lego Mindstorms learning experience in the science or math labs and classrooms, either. The arts department can benefit from these highly versatile learning tools, too.

Consider how many possibilities open up to students studying film and movie making when they can build their very own unique Lego Mindstorms characters for their projects. Brickfilms as well as motion pictures are both great ways to incorporate the sciences and mathematics into even the arts classroom.

The Lego Mindstorms for Schools (LMIS) and ROBOLAB product lines were first launched as educational tools, marketed to schools and other educational institutions in 1998 and have been the star of the classroom ever since.